Wednesday, October 27, 2010

With Christmas rapidly approaching, young kids in Canterbury are getting worried that Santa won't know that they've had to move house, or won't be able to get down the chimney, since it fell down in the quake, or has since been removed for safety reasons.

A kind elf by the name of Laurence Illot has set up a website www.santashelper.co.nz so that kids can post messages for Santa, if they are worried about how he will get in for deliveries, or if his sleigh is going to damage their roof further, and other such important concerns, and Santa will be replying to each and every one.

With everything that's gone on for the folks of Canterbury, it's great to see someone doing a little something to lighten the load.

Only messages issued by MCDEM represent the official warning status for New Zealand. Local civil defence authorities may supplement these messages by applying a local threat assessment.

Confirmation has not yet been received that a tsunami was generated. A tsunami is possible.

If a tsunami has been generated, the first wave may arrive in New Zealand in the areas at Waitangi, Chatham Islands at 1821 NZDT on 20/10/2010

The first wave may arrive later and may not be the largest. Waves may continue for several hours.

People in coastal areas should:

1. Stay off beaches2. Stay out of the water (sea, rivers and estuaries, including boating activities)3. Do not go sightseeing4. Share this information with family, neighbours and friends5. Listen to the radio and/or TV for updates6. Follow instructions of your local Civil Defence authorities.

MCDEM and scientific advisors are closely monitoring the situation to determine whether a tsunami has been generated and to assess the severity of the threat to New Zealand. More information about this event will follow.This advisory has been issued to all local civil defence authorities, emergency services, other agencies and media. NCMC status:

A further update with more information will follow within the next hour. Until a cancellation is issued updates will continue at least hourly. All further updates will be communicated by MCDEM via the national warning system.Issued by:Message authorised by the National Controller, Civil Defence Emergency Management.

Only messages issued by MCDEM represent the official warning status for New Zealand. Local civil defence authorities may supplement these messages by applying local threat assessments.A tsunami is possible. MCDEM and scientific advisors are assessing the severity of the threat to New Zealand.

People in coastal areas should:

1. Stay off beaches2. Stay out of the water (sea, rivers and estuaries, including boating activities)3. Do not go sightseeing4. Share this information with family, neighbours and friends5. Listen to the radio and/or TV for updates6. Follow instructions of your local Civil Defence authorities.

MCDEM and scientific advisors are closely monitoring the situation to determine whether a tsunami has been generated and to assess the severity of the threat to New Zealand. More information about this event will follow.This advisory has been issued to all local civil defence authorities, emergency services, other agencies and media.NCMC status:

The National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) is being activated. Further information:

A further update with more information will follow within the next hour. Until a cancellation is issued, updates will continue at least hourly. All further updates will be communicated by MCDEM via the national warning system.

Good morning, and welcome to Exercise Tangaroa. With Tangaroa being god of the sea, this national exercise is all about tsunami!

A few minutes ago, my phone woke me up with the first of the exercise injects - a Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre bulletin stating that there had been a magnitude 8.6 quake near the coast of Peru, and that a Warning was in place for Peru & Chile, and a Watch was in place for Ecuador.

This kind of warning only gets forwarded to my phone if it mentions NZ, so I pretended to go back to sleep, as I wouldn't have received anything yet.

Our National Warning System is set to send out notice if an earthquake of a certain minimum size happens within the areas which may create tsunamis for us. And that's just happened, and now my phone has just gone off with the first National Warning System message, so on with the exercise!

The following blog posts for today will be for Exercise Tangaroa, and should have "FOR EXERCISE ONLY" or EXERCISE TANGAROA in the subject line. Please be forgiving if someone forgets today, as it won't be just me making entries, it will shift to our Public Information Manager. If it's actually for a real emergency, the words "NO DUFF" will be used.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

While we're about to head out to Mana train station to promote tsunami evacuation zones on a gorgeous sunny day, our colleagues up the coast will be slightly distracted from their Get Ready Week activities by having to deal with something that hopefully everyone had gotten ready for - a massive dump of heavy rain causing flooding, power cuts, road closures etc - http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4228347/Heavy-rain-hits-East-Coast

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

It used to be called Disaster Awareness Week, but it's important to not just be aware of diasters, you actually have to do something about preparing for them! Get Ready to help you Get Thru.

The Wellington region's theme for this year's Get Ready Week is tsunami - it was timely after the Chilean tsunami, and the national Exercise Tangaroa next week on October 20th is also based on a distant-source tsunami - these were all planned out well before the quake in Canterbury - I guess earthquake will be the theme again next year?

If you get the Kapi-Mana News in Porirua & Tawa, you'll receive a copy of "It's Easy - Know your tsunami zone" (or you can download the 737kb pdf by clicking on the link) in with the paper today.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Time to be blown this way, then that. Here's the latest from the MetService:Severe Weather Warning - Northerly gales tonight

Northerly gales are forecast from this evening through to dawn on Saturday. The strongest winds are expected between about 10pm Friday and 4am Saturday, when severe gale gusts of 120 km/h are likely in exposed places.

Winds of this strength have the potential to damage trees, powerlines and insecure structures and make driving hazardous, especially for high sided vehicles and motorcycles.

Special Weather Advisory - Cold southerly gales for Sunday & Monday

Strong, cold south to southwest winds are also expected from Sunday afternoon to Monday evening. These cold winds are expected to reach gale force for a time near the coast and especially about Banks Peninsula, coastal Marlborough, Wellington and coastal Wairarapa. Snowfall amounts in these areas are expected to be modest, but could affect higher roads above 300 metres in Canterbury and eastern Marlborough and above 500 metres over central and southern parts of the North Island. This includes the Rimutaka Hill road and many of the roads leading through the Central Plateau.

Friday, October 1, 2010

I have to say that our public education group in the Wellington Region is awesome!

Here's a media release about some of our work.

Emergency preparedness document wins international award

A guide outlining easy step-by-step instructions for how to prepare for an emergency, published by the Wellington Region Emergency Management Group, has won the International Association of Emergency Managers 2010 Global Public Awareness Award.

The “It’s Easy” booklet was published in June 2010. The initial print run of 37,000 copies has been nearly exhausted.

“We’ve received positive feedback from householders and our local Emergency Management offices about the ‘It’s Easy’ booklet. But we’re really rapt and proud to get international recognition from an organisation with the standing that the International Association of Emergency Managers has,” Wellington Region Emergency Management Group Controller Rian van Schalkwyk says.

“Production of the booklet was a real team effort from the greater Wellington region Civil Defence Emergency Management public education group.

“This group identified a need for a handy, easy to read and understand guide for emergency preparedness and then produced it. They’ve done a tremendous job.

“Natural disasters can strike without warning anywhere at any time. The need for emergency preparation has been spectacularly highlighted recently by the Canterbury earthquake and also by floods in various parts of the country. It’s clear that the more preparation people make for an emergency, the more likely they are to get through it and that’s where the ‘It’s Easy’ booklet can help,” Rian Van Schalkwyk says.

Copies of the award-winning “It’s Easy” booklet are available from Council offices throughout the greater Wellington region and online at http://www.getprepared.co.nz/.